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Aug

Vodafone Rolling Out Vanilla (!) Froyo To HTC Desire In Next 7-10 Days

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Desire (Bravo/BravoC), Froyo 2.2, News, Vodafone

After Vodafone deployed an HTC Desire update last week that was full of crapware, customers responded with understandable anger. After initially standing firm on the crapware (“Vodafone 360”), Vodafone has now backed off and will remove it with the next update. The next update? Vanilla Froyo - and it’s coming in 7-10 days.

The surprising thing here is that the update will apparently be an unmolested version of Android 2.2 - something they elected not to do with their Nexus One update. The only customizations Vodafone will be making to the Froyo Desire update are to the network settings, in order to “optimise them for [their] network.” This is obviously good news for Desire owners, as it means they’ll receive the update sooner, and without any extra Vodafone “goodies.”

Congrats to Vodafone customers for standing together and staring down the huge teleco.

Aug

Official Motorola Droid Android 2.2 Froyo Update (Still FRG01B) Now Being Pushed Out OTA

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Droid (Sholes), Froyo 2.2, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

It's been 8 days since the original Android 2.2 Froyo update for the 1st Motorola Droid leaked out online, and Verizon has been taking its sweet time to make it available to the masses, leaving us guessing whether FRG01B was indeed the final version of this Éclair->Froyo update and whether serious stop-ship bugs were discovered.

Turns out, nothing has changed - FRG01B is exactly the version that Verizon started pushing out to the Droids a few hours ago. So if you haven't flashed the update a little over a week ago, you just missed out on 8 sweet days with the frozen deliciousness.

Aug

Motorola Droid 2 Quadrant Score Leaked - It’s A Monster

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Droid 2, Froyo 2.2, News, Verizon Wireless

A picture of a Droid 2’s Quadrant benchmark results has been released, and its score is the best stock store to date at 1,458. This is especially impressive considering the phone is apparently straight from the box.

Compared to the Droid X’s score of roughly 1,100, it’s even more impressive. Because both devices sport nearly identical hardware configurations, the difference most likely comes from Froyo - while the Droid 2 runs Android 2.2, the X only runs 2.1.

Granted, a benchmark’s real-world applicability is questionable (after all - Linpack famously runs about 400-500% faster on 2.2 compared to 2.1, but that certainly doesn’t mean the phone is 5x faster).

Aug

[Updated: The R2-D2 Droid 2 Site Is Live] Motorola Droid 2 Goes Official - Pre-Sale August 11th, Out August 12th

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Droid 2, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

It doesn't come as a huge surprise that the rumors regarding Moto's 2nd generation of the most popular Android phone ever were indeed right on the money. VZW announced this morning that Droid 2 will be going to its stores on August 12th, with a pre-sale starting a day earlier at www.verizonwireless.com.

Specs

The phone will ship with Android 2.2, supporting Flash 10.1, and these specs:

3.7" screen
5 MP Camera
3G Mobile Hotspot
1 GHz CPU
8 GB onboard memory
8 GB microSD card installed, support for up to 16 GB
DLNA

Bill Ogle, chief marketing officer of Moto Mobile, has this to say about the new Droid incarnation:

With the new DROID 2, we’ve taken a big leap forward from the original DROID.

Aug

DROID 2s Showing Up On Best Buy Display Shelves: $200 w/ Contract, $600 Without

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Droid 2, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

As the dust settles on the demise of the original DROID, a phoenix arises from the ashes in a downpour of leaks from the Motorola colander. I’m loath to mix metaphors, but the farcical nature of the DROID 2 pre-release circus can only be described in such epic terms. What do we know about the DROID 2?

And finally, now, its price. Sent in by a reader to Engadget, Best Buy has dummy units and prices out on display.

Right in there with the DROID X and iPhone 4, the DROID 2 will be $199.99 on a two year Verizon contract.

Aug

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Finally Comes To The US - Available For Pre-Order Now, Out August 15th On AT&T

Posted by Nate Kimmey in AT&T, Donut 1.6, News, Sony Ericsson, Xperia X10 (es209ra)

Yesterday, a countdown showed up on SonyStyle's website, promising something "smarter was coming." Here's what it looked like:

The contour and image enhancement (cranking the brightness all the way up) all but confirmed that Xperia X10 was imminent. Sure enough, this informed guess was correct, and Xperia X10 is headed for AT&T. This will be AT&T’s second high-end Android handset, and the first Android phone from Sony to launch here in the US.

In case you’re not familiar with the phone, it’s got all the high-end specs you’d expect from a smartphone in 2010:

1 GHz processor
4.0” screen
8.1 megapixel camera with LED flash
WiFi 802.11b/g
and expandable memory up to 32 GB (it ships with a 2 GB microSD card)

However, there is one big exception: the phone is most likely running Android 1.6, and there’s been no word on an update to Froyo, though an update to Android 2.1 is expected sometime this quarter.

Aug

Verizon 2010-2012 Roadmap Leaked, Shows A Whole Lot Of Android Love

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Fascinate, Galaxy S, HTC, Motorola, News, Samsung, Verizon Wireless

There have been plenty of rumors lately about the iPhone launching on Verizon within the next several months. Looking at Verizon’s incredibly successful history with Android and the Droid brand, it seems unlikely; and in case you thought that Verizon might be giving up on Android, think again. A Verizon roadmap leaked by Boy Genius Report shows that the Big Red has plenty of new Android goodies in store for us over the course of the next year.

Roadmap

Droid Pro

First off, a new addition to the Droid family. Along with the Droid X, Droid 2, and Droid Incredible, Verizon will be launching the Motorola Droid Pro.

Aug

From The Horse’s Mouth: Samsung Epic 4G Pre-Order Not Starting Today

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Epic 4G, News, Sprint

Earlier today, Engadget reported that Sprint would begin taking pre-orders for the Epic 4G later today. Before running with the story, we wanted to fact-check with our Sprint rep, and we’re glad we did - his response:

No plans for pre-order today. As you know, people can however sign up to get additional information sent to them when it’s available - but not pre-order.

There you have it - as much as we wish it was true, looks like we have a bit longer to wait.

Aug

New Features And Fixes In The EVO 4G Froyo Update - Which One Is Your Favorite? [+Poll]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in EVO 4G (Supersonic), Froyo 2.2, HTC, Sprint, Tips & Tutorials

Well, the last few days have been pretty crazy, haven't they? Froyo OTAs hit on 2 major phones, one by one. First, on Monday, the final Froyo version came out for the EVO 4G, and today we saw Verizon's 2.2 show up as well.

Now that the dust has settled a bit, I'd like to take a step back and describe some of the EVO 4G specific Froyo fixes and features we've been seeing on our EVOs.

New Features And Fixes

^{A good portion of these bullets were written by a Quang Nguyen - our brave EVO tester}

1. Lock phone after X minutes of sleep.

Aug

Early EVO 4G Froyo OTA Adopters, Rejoice. An Update From 3.26.651.3 (Friday Leak) To 3.26.651.6 (Monday Final) Now Available

Posted by Tim Kanavy in Development, EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, News, Sprint

The wizards at xda-developers have woven their magic once again and solved the woes of those EVO 4G owners who upgraded their handsets to HTC's leaked 3.26.651.3 version of Froyo last Friday.

Problem

If you remember, shortly after the .3 leak was posted, HTC announced that it wasn't the final Froyo release. Indeed, a few days later, on Monday, the world saw a new, this time official, OTA with the version number ending in .6. The problem was, however, that there was no way to update from .3 to .6, which left the early adopters empty handed.

Solution

Pojoman, one of xda's members, managed to acquire the necessary upgrade file from Sprint (props to his connections there) and made it, along with installation instructions, available to all the EVO pioneers.